HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

BY    MADISON    C.    PETERS 


UC-NRLF 


GIFT  OF 
Gladys   Isaacson 


HEBREW  HOPES 
OF  HEAVEN 

\Vkat   tke    Old  Testament  Has   to    Say 
About  the  Great  Hereafter 


BY 


MADISON  C.  PETERS 


AutKor  of  "Justice  to  the  Jew,"  "After  Death — What?' 

"Sermons  that  Won  the  Masses,"  "Abraham 

Lincoln's  Religion,"  etc.,  etc. 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

THE  JEWISH  TIMES  PRESS 

PACIFIC  BUILDING 


COPYRIGHT,  1911,  BY  MADISON  C.  PKTBRS 
PUBLISHED  FEBRUARY,  1911 


GIST  OF 
GLADYS    ISAACSON 


The  Jewish  Times  Press 
San  Francisco 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 


This  world  is  not  conclusion; 
A  sequel  stands  beyond, 
Invisible  as  music, 
But  positive  as  sound. 

— Emily  Dickinson. 

We  do  not  believe  in  immortality  because  we 
have  proved  it,  but  we  forever  try  to  prove  it  be- 
cause we  believe  it. — Martineau. 

The  grave  itself  is  but  a  covered  bridge  leading 
from  light  to  light  through  a  brief  darkness. 

— Longfellow. 

For  tho'  from  out  our  bourne  of  Time  and  Place 

The  flood  may  bear  me  far, 
I  hcpe  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 

When  I  have  crossed  the  Bar. 

— Tennyson. 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 


¥HE  GREAT  HEREAFTER  is  an 
ever-present    underlying    fact    which 
runs  like  a  golden  thread  from  Gene- 
sis to  Revelation.     Like  t!ie  existence 
of  God,  the  Bible  takes  for  granted 
our  immortality,  assuring  those  who  are  in  fellow- 
ship with  God  of  a  blessed  life  beyond  the  horizon 
of  death. 

It  is  popularly  supposed  that  the  glorified  union 
of  the  soul  and  the  body  in  the  future  life  is  pre- 
eminently a  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament.  In- 
deed many  writers  strangely  pretend  to  doubt 
whether  the  Hebrews  of  old  knew  anything  at  all 
of  another  life. 

The  Bible  starts  out  with  the  conception  that 
man  sustains  relations  to  God  which  are  never  to 
cease.  The  creation  of  man  is  not  explained  scien- 
tifically, how  matter  or  man  were  created,  there  are 
no  theories  indulged  as  to  man's  origin,  except  that 
God  created  him  in  His  own  image:  "So  God 
created  man  in  His  own  image."  (Genesis,  ii:26). 


iv  27868 


HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 


•  The  body  -was  made  out  of  pre-existent  mate- 
rial, generated,  his  soul  was  created  out  of  nothing, 
the  body  so  exquisitely  organized  was  a  mass  of 
inert  matter  until  God  endowed  it  with  vitality. 

The  material  likeness  of  God  was  not  referred 
to.  God  has  no  corporeal  image:  "And  the  Lord 
God  spake  unto  you  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire, 
ye  heard  the  voice  of  the  words,  but  saw  no  simili- 
tude, only  ye  heard  the  voice."  (Deut.  iv:12.) 

To  the  Hebrews  "in  the  image  of  God"  meant 
that  they  were  created  with  a  soul  invisible  and 
undying  as  the  Divine  Spirit.  Thus  we  are  told: 
"The  Lord  God  formed  man  out  of  dust  of  the 
ground  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life;  and  man  became  a  living  soul."  (Gen. 
ii:7.)  Here  emphatic  expression  is  given  to  man's 
two-fold  nature. 

The  doctrine  of  a  dual  life  is  disclosed  even 
in  the  fact  that  the  Hebrew  synonym  for  life  has  a 
plural  form.  "The  breath  of  life"  —  literally,  lives, 
or  "the  soul  of  lives."  Thus  on  the  very  first  page 
of  the  Pentateuch  the  immortality  of  the  soul  was 
a  principle  well  known  and  fully  understood. 

The  Old  Testament  plainly  draws  a  distinction 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

between  spirit  and  flesh:  "And  they  fell  on  their 
faces  and  said,  O!  God,  the  God  of  the  spirits  of 
all  flesh."  (Numbers  xvi:22.)  "But  his  flesh 
upon  him  shall  have  pain.  His  soul  within  shall 
mourn."  (Job  xiv:22.)  "Flesh"  and  "soul" 
are  placed  in  contradistinction — the  flesh  is  "upon 
him,"  and  the  soul  is  "within  him."  "But  there  is 
a  spirit  in  man  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty 
giveth  him  understanding."  (Job  xxxii:8.)  "The 
Lord  forme th  the  spirit  of  man  within  him."  (Zech. 

The  original  decree  of  death  implies  only  the 
death  of  the  body — "for  dust  thou  art,  and  unto 
dust  shalt  thou  return."  And  Ecclesiastes,  xii:7, 
"Then  shall  the  dust  return  to  the  earth  as  it  was; 
and  the  spirit  shall  return  unto  God,  who  gave  it," 
is  only  an  explanation  of  the  scope  and  design  of 
the  decree  that  the  "dust"  or  body  only  is  to  "re- 
turn to  the  earth  as  it  was,"  while  the  spirit,  "the 
breath  of  lives,"  blown  into  Adam  by  his  Creator, 
was  not  dust,  nor  "taken  out  of  the  ground,"  but  is 
to  "return  unto  God  who  gave  it."  The  spirit, 
therefore,  has  no  affinity  for  the  material  clod,  and 


8     HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

was  not  doomed  to  the  dust  with  the  body  at 
death. 

"Enoch  walked  with  God:  and  he  was  not, 
for  God  took  him."  (Gen.  v:24.)  The  miracle 
of  Enoch's  translation  was  a  divine  intimation 
pointing  to  the  existence  of  an  invisible  world.  "He 
was  not,  for  God  took  him"  —  implies,  first,  that  he 
was  exempted  from  natural  death,  and  second, 
that  he  entered  upcn  a  higher  existence  as  a  conse- 
quence of  having  walked  with  God  —  he  is  ad- 
vanced to  a  new  stage  of  life,  and  this  translation  of 
Enoch  is  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  the  belief  in 
a  future  state,  prevailing  among  the  Hebrews  ;  with- 
out this  belief  the  history  of  Enoch  is  as  Kalisch 
puts  it  —  /'A  hieroglyph  without  a  clue.J  There 
j^1  could  not  be  a  more  impressive  revelation  of  the 
existence  of  God,  and  of  the  eternal  separation  of 
those  who  serve  Him  and  who  serve  Him  not;  of 
the  life  and  immortality  —  especially  to  be  expected 
after  departure  from  this  world. 

How  could  Noah  have  been  "a  preacher  of 
righteousness"  without  having  some  motive  to  pre- 
sent from  another  world,  or  without  exhibiting  the 
end  of  righteousness,  which  is  "quietness  and  assur- 


*~ 

^  i  / 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN     9 

ance  forever?"  The  writer  of  the  epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  (xi)  tells  us  that  what  Noah  and  the 
patriarchs  did  they  did  "by  faith."  Faith  itself 
implies  the  knowledge  of  a  future  life,  for  it  is  "the 
substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of 
things  not  seen."  The  same  writer  says  that 
Abraham  and  a  host  of  others  looked  for  a 
heavenly  country. 

The  strong  desire  which  reigned  in  the  hearts 
of  the  Old  Testament  saints  to  be  buried  together 
with  their  kindred  in  the  same  place  is  proof  that 
they  believed  in  perpetual  union  with  their  friends 
through  death  in  a  future  life.  They  had  lived 
together  in  life ;  they  wished  to  lie  together  in  death ; 
to  rise  together  in  resurrection  and  to  dwell  together 
in  everlasting  habitations. 

The  familiar  phrase,  "gathered  to  his  people," 

•'-  or  "gathered  to  his  fathers,"  does  not  mean  simply 
\~t&£  to  die  or  to  ke  buried  in  the  family  tomb,  but  it 

-/.meant  joining  them  in  the  other  world.  This  is  the 
clear  decision  of  the  best  commentators  of  the  var- 
ious schools.  Says  Gerlach  on  Genesis  xv :  1  5  : 
"Thou  shalt  go  to  thy  fathers  or  thy  people,  in 
peace,  is  the  gracious  expression  for  a  life  after 


10    HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

death."  Says  Baumgarten:  "A  continuance 
after  death  is  assuredly  expressed  therein."  Kno- 
bel  remarks  on  Genesis  xxv:8,  "Abraham  was 
gathered  to  his  fathers,  was  associated  with  his 
ancestors  in  sheol." 

Sheol,  like  the  Greek  Hades,  is  a  general  term, 
meaning  simply  eternity,  orjhe  regions  of  the  dead, 
without  designating  the  particular  condition  of  the 
dead  as  happy  or  miserable.  Their  actual  condi- 
tion must  be  determined  by  the  context. 

The  phrase  "to  go  to  his  fathers,"  "to  be  gath- 
ered to  his  fathers,"  and  the  very  common  one  "to 
deep  with  his  fathers"  all  have  t!:e  same  meaning. 
Delitzsch  takes  the  same  ground  that — "The  union 
with  the  fathers  is  not  mere  union  of  corpses,  but 
of  persons." 

This  view  is  strongly  reinforced  by  the  re- 
peated designation  of  the  whole  present  life,  how- 
ever protracted,  as  a  pilgrimage.  Perhaps  the 
earliest  representation  of  our  life  to  be  found  in  the 
Bible  escaped  from  the  lips  of  Jacob,  when  in 
answer  to  Pharoah's  question:  "How  old  art 
thou?"  he  said:  "Few  and  evil  have  the  days  of 
the  years  of  my  pilgrimage  been." 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN    11 

Man  is  the  sport  of  a  fact  which  he  does  not 
recognize — his  life  is  a  pilgrimage — but  he  is  try- 
ing to  make  it  a  final  condition.  He  is  a  pilgrim, 
not  a  resident.  The  world  is  good,  for  pilgrims, 
but  bad  for  residents.  Like  a  road,  good  for  travel- 
ing, but  not  good  for  sleeping. 

When  man  attempts  to  make  this  earth  his  final 
abode,  he  finds  himself  in  collision  with  a  higher 
law  which  makes  him  miserable,  but  which  will 
neither  bend  nor  break  to  accommodate  him.  His 
restlessness  is  the  voice  of  God  seeking  to  shake  him 
out  of  his  slumbers  and  compel  him  to  recognize 
his  own  immortality. 

The  Hebrews  regarded  life  as  a  journey  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.     The  traveler  as  they  supposed, 
when  he  arrived  at  the  end  of  his  journey,  which  - 
happened  when  he  died,  was  received  into  the  com- 
pany of  his  ancestors,  who  had  gone  before  him. 
As  the  Talmud  has  it:    "This  world  is  like  a  road- 
side inn,  but  the  world  to  come  is  like  a  real  home. 
Your   past    life    has   been    down-hill    and    toward 
gloom;    your  future  is  up-hill  toward  the  glorious 
sunrise. 

Dying  is  throwing  open  the  door  that  the  bird 


12    HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

may  fly  out  of  its  netted  cage  and  be  heard  singing 
in  higher  flights  and  in  diviner  realms. 

This  visiting  of  the  fathers  has  reference  to  the 
immortal  part,  and  is  clearly  distinguished  from  the 
mere  burial  of  the  body.  The  closing  scenes  of  the 
life  of  Moses,  his  journey  up  the  peaks  of  Pisgah 
and  Nebo  to  die,  together  with  his  message  that  he 
left  with  the  people  assuring  them  that  God  would 
meet  him,  must  all  have  made  very  real  to  the 
people  the  truth  that  there  was  a  life  beyond  the 
grave. 

A  decisive  indication  amounting  to  a  positive 
proof  of  a  belief  in  the  continued  existence  of  the 
departed  is  the  practice  of  the  magical  invocation 
of  the  dead,  a  practice  which  Moses  was  obliged 
to  prohibit  by  law.  In  Deut.  xviii :  1 0,  11,  he 
commands:  **There  shall  not  be  found  among  you 
any  one  that  useth  divination,  or  an  observer  of 
times,  or  an  enchanter,  or  a  witch,  or  a  charmer,  or 
a  consulter  with  familiar  spirits,  or  a  wizard,  or  a 
necromancer." 

The  clear  comment  of  this  law,  and  conclusive 
proof  of  the  strong  hold  of  the  belief  and  practice 
upon  the  nation,  is  found  in  the  interview  of  Saul 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN    1 3 

with  the  Witch  of  Endor  (I  Samuel,  xxviii:7-20). 
Saul  went  with  the  demand:  "Bring  me  him  up 
whom  I  shall  name  unto  thee."  The  woman's 
reply  shows  that  this  was  a  common  pretension  of 
the  whole  class  of  wizards:  "Behold,  thou  know- 
est  what  Saul  hath  done,  how  he  cut  off  those  who 
have  familiar  spirits,  and  wizards  out  of  the  land; 
wherefore  then  layest  thou  a  snare  for  my  life  to 
cause  me  to  die?"  When  Saul  had  reassured  her, 
she  inquires  in  a  most  sweeping  way:  "Whom 
shall  I  bring  up  unto  theeX'  He  calls  for  Samuel. 
The  sequel  need  not  be  related. 

There  is  no  disguising  the  fact  that  there  were 
persons  in  Israel  who  pretended  to  summon  the 
dead  into  communication  with  the  living,  and  the 
belief  'in  their  power  was  so  general  as  to  require 
a  special  exertion  of  the  king's  authority  to  banish 
them  from  the  kingdom,  and  the  belief  in  spiritual- 
ism was  so  deep-seated  that  even  the  king  himself 
was  a  victim  of  the  delusion.  But  the  prevalent 
belief  in  the  ability  to  bring  up  the  dead  must  have 
rested  on  an  equally  prevalent  belief  that  the  dead 
were  still  in  being. 

Balaam,  the  heathen  prophet,  saw  the  light  of 


14    HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

immortality  when  he  prayed:  "Let  me  die  the 
death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like 
his. ' '  (  Numbers  xxxiii :  1  0. ) 

Again  take  the  ascent  of  Elijah  in  a  chariot  of 
fire.  (II  Kings,  ii:l-l  1.)  "Elijah  went  up  by  a 
whirlwind  into  heaven" —  literally  —  Elijah  r»c~t 
up  in  a  storm  into  the  heavens,"  the  visible  firma- 
ment or  sky.  The  only  honest  exegesis  of  this  pass- 
age is  the  teaching  that  Elijah  was  taken  from  t!:e 
earth,  like  Enoch,  without  dying.  The  horses  and 
chariots  were  rather  the  accompaniment  than  the 
means  of  this  translation.  Can  we  believe  that 
Israel  had  no  conception  of  its  meaning?  It 
needed  figuration  to  intimate  that  though  absent 
from  earth,  he  was  present  with  God. 

It  is  clear  that  the  sentence,  "the  soul  that  sin- 
neth,  it  shall  die"  and  the  promise  that  he  who 
"repenteth  and  turned  to  righteousness  shall  live," 
must  have  involved  a  future  beyond  the  limits  of 
man's  earthly  existence. 

In  the  dying  song  of  Moses,  he  exclaims:  "Oh, 
that  they  were  wise,  that  they  would  consider  their 
latter  end!"  (Deut.  xxxii:29.)  Consider  the 
latter  end  of  life  and  the  future  state  of  the  soul — 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN    15 

think  of  death  as  your  removal  from  a  world  of 
sense  to  a  world  of  spirits,  as  the  final  period  of 
your  state  of  trial  and  probation  and  entrance  upon 
a  state  of  recompense  and  retribution. 

Of  all  the  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  that 
bear  upon  the  problems  of  eschatology,  few  com- 
pare in  their  pregnant  significance  with  Ezekiel's 
declaration  that  "the  Lord  hath  no  pleasure  in  the 
death  of  him  that  dieth,"  but  was  evermore  seeking 
to  bring  him  back  to  life. 

David  with  no  uncertain  voice  expresses  his  be- 
lief that  he  would  one  day  be  reunited  with  his 
beloved  child.:  "And  he  said  while  the  child 
was  yet  alive,  I  fasted  and  wept;  for  I  said,  who 
can  tell  whether  God  will  be  gracious  unto  me  and 
the  child  may  live?  But  now  he  is  dead,  wherefore 
should  I  fast?  Can  I  bring  him  back  again?  I 
shall  go  to  him,  but  he  shall  not  return  unto  me." 
(Samuel,  xii:22-23.) 

Surely  David  did  not  think  of  his  child  as  just 
Qmong  the  dead  and  comfort  himselr  with  the  hope 
he  too  should  soon  die,  and  be,  like  him  in  the  grave 
and  free  from  trouble.  Instead  of  yielding  to 
despair,  he  was  cheerfully  resigned  at  the  thought  of 


16    HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

going  to  his  child.  How  many  parents  would  have 
been  drawn  after  their  sainted  children  into  the 
grave  by  a  cord  of  unrelenting  grief,  were  it  not 
that  they  draw  consolation  and  hope  from  the  same 
source  wherewith  this  royal  parent  was  comforted: 
"I  shall  go  to  him." 

David's  deep  convictions  of  immortality  breathe 
in  his  Psalms.  "For  thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul 
to  Sheol,  neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thy  holy  one  to  see 
corruption."  (Psalm  xvi:10.)  "As  for  me  I  will 
behold  thy  face  in  righteousness ;  I  shall  be  satisfied 
when  I  shall  awake  with  thy  likeness."  (Psalm 
xiv:15.)  "But  God  shall  redeem  my  soul  from 
the  power  of  the  grave;  for  he  shall  receive  me." 
(Psalm  xlix:15.)  "Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  thy 
counsel,  and  afterward  receive  me  into  glory. 
Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  thee?  and  there  is  none 
on  earth  that  I  desire  beside  thee.  My  heart  and 
my  flesh  faileth;  but  God  is  the  strength  of  my 
heart,  and  my  portion  forever."  (Psalm  Ixxiii: 
24-26.) 

The  sacrifices  of  the  temple,  the  solemn  ritual 
of  the  day  of  atonement,  the  sense  of  guilt  which 
uttered  itself  in  confession  like  Psalm,  li,  the  anti- 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN    1  7 

cipation  of  deliverance  from  guilt — all  implies  the 
thought  that  the  mischief  wrought  By  sin  did  not 
terminate  with  death,  and  that  there  was  a  restora- 
tion from  it  possible  even  after  death. 

David  could  look  forward  to  the  journey 
through  the  valley  of  death  without  fear,  for  the 
Divine  Guide  would  be  with  him  even  there. 
(Psalm  xxiii:4.) 

David  seems  sometimes  to  have  taken  a  dark 
view  of  death.  For  instance:  "For  in  death  there 
is  no  remembrance;  in  the  grave  who  shall  give 
thee  thanks?"  (Psalm  vi:5.)  Or,  again:  "What 
profit  is  there  in  my  blood,  when  I  go  down  to  the 
\  j^it?  Shall  the  dust  praise  thee?  Shall  it  declare 
thy  truth?  (Psalm  xxx:9.)  These  texts  read  only 
by  themselves  apparently  justify  the  assertion  that 
the  belief  of  individual  Israelites  concerning  the 
future  state  was  doubtful.  But  examine  these 
verses  in  their  context  and  you  will  find  them  quite 
consistent  with  a  belief  in  a  life  beyond  the  grave. 
Rabbi  Herrman  Alder  says: 

"The  Psalms  from  which  the  extracts  in  ques- 
tion are  taken  were  composed  at  a  season  of  ex- 
treme depression,  when  the  writer  was  sick  unto 


18    HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

death,  when  David  felt  himself  estranged  from  God 
in  consequence  of  his  great  sin.  What  prospect  does 
this  after-state  offer  unto  him  who  has  forfeited 
heaven's  favor?  He  is  aware  that  the  earthly  life 
is  the  season  for  serving  God,  and  that  only  by 
sincere  and  active  repentance  can  he  obtain  forgive- 
ness of  his  trespass.  If  opportunity  be  not  given 
him  for  working  out  his  soul's  salvation,  he  has 
grievous  cause  to  dread  divine  punishment. 

"The  revealed  word  of  God  does  not  describe 
the  nature  of  his  penalty.  It  only  hints  at  it  by  the 
terrible  phrase  of  'cutting  off  the  soul.'  From  this 
annihilation  he  prays  to  be  delivered,  *  Return,  O 
Lord,  deliver  my  soul;  O  save  me  for  thy  mercy's 
sake!  For  in  death  there  is  no  remembrance  of 
thee;  in  the  grave  who  shall  give  thee  thanks?" 
(Psalm  vi:4-5.) 

He  laments  in  the  bitterness  of  his  grief,  that  if 
he  be  cut  off  in  his  sin,  he  will  be  unable  to  serve 
his  God.  But  how  can  it  be  maintained  that  David 
had  no  firm  belief  in  immortality?  David,  who, 
when  he  is  at  peace  with  God,  declares  with  un- 
shaken confidence,  'As  for  me,  I  will  behold  Thy 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN    19 

face  in  righteousness;    I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I 
awake  with  Thy  likeness.' 

"The  sublime  truth  sung  by  the  sweet  singer  of 
Israel  is  echoed  with  no  less  fervor  and  vigor  by 
the  other  Psalmists.  The  forty-ninth  Psalm  pre- 
sents the  doubts  -as  to  divine  justice  which  crowd 
upon  the  minds  of  those  who  are  troubled  by  the 
apparent  glory  of  the  careless  and  insolent,  and  the 
sorrows  of  the  poor  and  virtuous.  The  Psalmist 
announces  the  answer  to  our  questioning  and  dis- 
quietude. The  morning  comes  which  follows  the 
night  of  death,  and  with  it  comes  the  awakening; 
the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the  wicked  and  haughty 
fall  into  utter  dissolution:  'But  God  will  redeem 
my  soul  from  the  power  of  the  nether  world,  for  he 
shall  receive  me.'  (Verse  15.)  Fired  by  real 
living  faith  in  a  living  God,  he  feels  assured  that 
there  is  a  future  state  in  which  the  just  Ruler  of  the 
world  will  make  full  amends  for  the  unequal  dis- 
tribution of  burdens  which  He  wisely  permits  in  this 
life  of  probation." 

This  thought  is  dwelt  upon  with  greater  empha- 
sis by  Asaph  in  Psalm  Ixxiii,  where  the  writer  see- 
ing how  unevenly  the  balances  swing  here,  asks: 


20         HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

"Wherefore  do  the  wicked  live,  become  old,  yea, 
are  mighty  in  power?  Is  there  no  punishment  for 
the  workers  of  iniquity?  Is  there  no  God  that 
judgeth  in  the  earth?"  And  indeed  were  there  no 
retribution  beyond  the  limits  of  this  present  life,  we 
should  be  necessarily  obliged  to  admit  one  or  the 
other  of  the  following  conclusions:  Either  that  no 
Moral  Governor  of  ihe  world  exists  or  that  'Justice 
and  judgment*  are  not  'thy  habitation  of  His 
throne." 

Isaiah,  with  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  upon  him 
announces:  "He  shall  destroy  death  forever,  and 
the  Lord  God  shall  wipe  away  tears  off  all  faces." 
(xxv:8.)  And  again  he  addresses  his  sublime 
appeal  to  the  house  of  Israel:  "Thy  dead  men 
shall  live,  thy  dead  bodies  will  rise.  Awake  and 
sing,  ye  that  dwell  in  the  dust;  for  thy  dew  is  as 
the  dew  of  herbs,  and  the  earth  shall  cast  out  the 
dead."  (xxiv:24:19.) 

Behold  Ezekiel  preach  his  splendid  vision,  the 
revival  of  the  dead  bones  (chapter  xxxvii)  and  who 
dare  assert  that  the  prophets  were  ignorant  or  care- 
less of  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life? 

Job  appeals  from  his  narrow-minded  judges  on 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN    21 

earth  to  God  on  high,  beseeching  him  to  hear  and 
try  his  cause,  and  in  the  strength  of  his  appeal  his 
eye  grows  clear  and  undimmed.  His  sickness  ap- 
pears mortal,  he  has  no  hope  in  life,  but  his  intense 
conviction  that  justice  must  and  will  be*  done  to  him 
possesses  him  more  and  more:  "For  I  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  that  he  shall  stand  at 
the  latter  day  upon  the  earth  and  after  my  skin  has 
been  destroyed,  yet  out  of  my  flesh  shall  I  see 
God."  (xix:25-26.)  This  is  the  sum  total  of  all 
that  has  been  said  and  written  concerning  immor- 
tality— "After  my  dissolution  I  shall  see  God." 

The  book  of  Ecclesiastes  shows  forth  the  weari- 
ness which  overtakes  the  man  whose  chief  aim  of  life 
is  sensual  gratification,  whose  mind  gloomed  by 
doubt  and  disgust  with  sin,  utters  the  despairing 
cry:  "For  that  which  befalleth  them,  as  the  one 
dies,  so  dieth  the  others."  But  the  book  likewise 
shows  us  the  process  by  which  men  are  to  fight  out 
and  win  over  the  doubts  that  spring  up  in  their 
hearts.  At  the  end  the  preacher  gives  utterance  to 
the  emphatic  declaration:  "Then  shall  the  dust 
return  unto  the  earth  as  it  was,  and  the  spirit  shall 
return  to  God  who  gave  it."  (vii:7.)  In  these 


22    HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

words  there  is  neither  doubt  nor  wavering.  The 
dualism  of  man's  nature  is  fully  acknowledged. 
Entire  belief  in  the  soul's  immortality  triumphs  over 
all  the  gloom  and  weariness  that  had  tinged  hif 
previous  meditations,  removing  at  once  and  forever 
the  proposal  to  "Lie  in  dull  oblivion  and  to  rot." 

In  the  same  chapter  we  find  a  very  distinct 
assertion  of  future  retribution:  "Let  us  hear  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter:  Fear  God  and 
keep  his  commandments;  for  this  is  the  whole  duty 
of  man.  For  God  shall  bring  every  work  into  judg- 
ment, with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good, 
or  whether  it  be  evil."  (13-14.)  That  the  judg- 
ment here  spoken  of  is  future  is  clear  from  verse 
seven  of  the  same  chapter,  where  the  writer  speaks 
of  the  appearance  of  the  spirit,  separated  from  the 
body,  before  God,  to  receive  the  compensation  for 
its  works. 

Still  more  distinct,  if  possible,  is  the  utterance 
of  Daniel:  "And  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the 
dust  of  the  earth  shall  wake,  some  to  everlasting 
life,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt. 
And  they  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness 


HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN    23 

of  the  firmament;  and  they  that  turn  to  righteous- 
ness, as  the  stars  forever  and  ever."  (xii  2-3.) 
Let  us  now  turn  to  a  New  Testament  scence, 
yet  none  the  less  Jewish.  The  body  of  Moses  slept 
in  the  valley  of  the  land  of  Moab,  but  his  spirit, 
not  sleeping  or  unconscious  by  waiting  in  the  grave 
for  the  sound  of  the  last  trumpet,  had  been  fourteen 
hundred  years  in  heaven,  and  in  recognizable  form 
talked  with  Jesus  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration. 
Moses  and  Elijah  were  not  creations  of  excited 
imagination,  but  actually  present  and  surely  visible, 
and  their  presence  there  was  intended  to  teach  that 
centuries  after  their  death,  those  heroes  of  Israel 
were  alive,  active  and  interested  in  the  same  great 
subjects  as  when  on  earth,  and  I  am  almost  forced 
to  believe  that  the  citizens  of  eternity  know  what  is 
taking  place  down  here  on  earth.  If  you  are  living 
an  ungodly  life  the  loved  ones  in  glory  are  conscious 
of  it,  yet — if  you  are  noble  and  true  your  life 
ascends  like  a  sweet-smelling  incense.  There  is  as 
much  truth  for  the  believing  Jew  as  for  the  sin- 
cere Christian  in  the  lines  of  the  song: 

"Bright  as  the  morning,  fair  as  the  day, 
Loved  ones  in  glory,  looking  this  wav." 


24    HEBREW  HOPES  OF  HEAVEN 

THE    TALMUD    AND    IMMORTALITY 


A  special  mansion  will  be  given  in  heaven  to 
every  pious  man.  #  #  # 

This  world  is  a  road-side  inn,  but  the  world  to 
come  is  a  real  home. 

To  the  world  of  future  bliss,  like  a  vestibule  is 
this.     In  the  vestibule  prepare  for  life  eternal. 
*      *      # 

The  longest  life  is  insufficient  for  the  fulfillment 
of  half  of  man's  desires. 

He  who  lays  up  no  store  of  good  deeds  during 
the  working  days  of  life  can  never  enjoy  the  eternal 
Sabbath.  *  *  * 

Weep  for  us  who  live  to  mourn,  and  not  for 
him  we  have  lost,  for  he  to  eternity  has  been  borne. 

A  man  departing  from  this  world,  departeth  not 
alone;  not  gold,  nor  silver  follow  him,  nor  pearls, 
nor  precious  stones ;  good  deeds  go  with  him  to  life 
forever  more. 


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